ORIGINAL RESEARCH
VOC Emissions from Natural Upholstery
Leathers
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Department of Furniture, Design and Habitation, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
Submission date: 2021-01-13
Final revision date: 2021-03-24
Acceptance date: 2021-03-24
Online publication date: 2021-08-31
Publication date: 2021-10-01
Corresponding author
Petr Čech
Department of Furniture, Design and Habitation, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 61300, Brno, Czech Republic
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(6):4945-4955
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ABSTRACT
This article addresses the issue of VOC emissions from upholstery materials (natural leather) used
for the manufacturing of upholstered furniture. The main intention of this paper is to compare VOC
emissions released from different types of natural upholstery leathers. This research has assessed the
impact of various factors (e.g. the organic origin of leather, the type of tanning, the type of upholstery
leather and the leather finish etc.) on the amount of VOC emissions from natural leathers used for the
production of upholstered furniture. 1 m2 samples of natural leather were prepared for testing before
being placed into a small test chamber (1 m3 volume). VOC emission measurements were taken in
a small test chamber with predefined conditions (an ambient temperature of 23ºC and 50% relative
air humidity). With the use of sorbent Tenax TA were, the values of VOC emissions released by the
test sample of different types of leather into desorption tubes was then recorded. VOC emissions were
analysed in an Agilent GC 6890 N gas chromatograph using an Agilent 5973 Network mass spectrometer
using cryofocusing, thermal desorption and a GC-MS data library (NIST 05). The analyses conducted
provide qualitative and quantitative data regarding the concentration of selected VOC representatives
measured in μg.m-3. The quantitative difference in all emitted organic compounds is shown by
the measured values of the TVOC parameter.